The US State Department said it had notified Congress of the Biden administration’s intention to release billions of dollars worth of foreign military financing to Israel.
CNN reported earlier on the release of the amount which comes from a $14 billion supplemental funding bill for Israel passed by the Congress in April.
The State Department said part of the new financial aid would go to Israel’s Netzah Yehuda battalion, an Israeli military unit which is based in the occupied West Bank and has for long been committing human rights abuses against Palestinians there.
The State Department also said it had decided against sanctioning the unit, stressing that it was satisfied with what was claimed to be “Israeli efforts to address” violations by the battalion.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken determined in a finding made public in April that the battalion carried out grave human rights abuses against Palestinians, triggering an investigation under US legislation related to US military aid to foreign forces.
Despite protests from Republican lawmakers over the findings of abuse related to the battalion, Blinken said he would allow aid to continue to the unit in order to give Israel time to address the wrongdoing.
The US remains Israel’s most important ally and biggest supplier of arms. It has provided Israel with weapons and intelligence support during the Gaza war, and blocked UN resolutions calling for a humanitarian ceasefire in the besieged Palestinian territory.
The Tel Aviv regime’s genocidal war on Gaza, which began last October, has killed at least 39,699 people, including more than 15,000 children, in the besieged territory.
MA/Press TV
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